Landscape Design Software

Adding a Deck

Realtime Landscaping Architect supports a wide variety of deck designs, including straight, multilevel, curved, and even decks with holes.

Designing decks is easy. Simply draw an outline for the top of the deck (or deck section) and all of the hard work, such as adding support posts and framing and building railing is done automatically. You can design a deck from scratch, or use the Deck Wizard to add a pre-built deck which you can use as a starting point for your own design.

To add a deck:

1. Click Add Deck.

2. Draw the deck's outline by clicking to add points. Press Backspace to remove the last point. Press Esc to cancel. Press Enter to enter the angle and distance manually.

3. Click the starting point to close the outline. Or, right-click to automatically join the last point to the first.

The following landscape design uses two decks, one for each level.

Creating Curved Decking

You can edit the curvature at each point on a deck like any other shape. This helps you create the curves found in many modern deck designs. See Editing Points for details.

However, creating perfectly rounded corners by hand can be a challenge. Instead, use the Round Corners tool to quickly round multiple corners at the same time.

To round one or more corners:

1. Select the deck(s) you want to modify.

2. Click Edit points.

3. Select the points at the corners you want to round.

4. Click the Round corners tool or press O.

5. Position cursor over one of the selected points and drag. All of the selected corners will be rounded at the same time. The radius will appear in the help bar at the bottom of the screen as you drag the mouse. Release the mouse when the desired radius is reached.

6. Click Edit points again to leave point editing mode.

The following deck design shows two points before and after rounding.

Cutting Holes

You can cut holes or other shapes in the deck to make room for a hot tub or other feature.

To cut a hole in the deck:

1. Click Plan to display the plan view.

2. Click Ellipse and draw a circle for the hole you wish to cut out. (Hold Shift to constrain the shape to a circle.)

3. Move the circle to the desired position over the deck.

4. Click the deck to select it.

5. Hold Shift and click the circle to select it. (The selection order is important – the deck must be selected first, and the circle second.)

6. Click Edit > Shape > Boolean Subtract. The hole will be cut out from the deck.

The following shows the deck after the hole has been subtracted. The Hide deck boards option was used to expose the framing.

See Using Booleans to Create Complex Shapes for more information.

Deck Railing

Railing is added to the entire deck by default. You can turn railing on or off per-edge using the Railing tool.

To turn railing on or off:

1. Click Edit Railing to enter railing editing mode.

2. Click the edge(s) where you want to turn railing on or off.

3. When done, click Edit Railing again to toggle it off and leave railing editing mode.

Customizing the Plan View

Decks can have a unique appearance in the plan view. For example, you could modify the deck with a dark outline and gradient fill for the interior. To do this, check the Custom appearance in each view option. Two tabs will appear: Plan and Perspective. These allow you to customize how the deck appears in each view. Uncheck the option to display the deck as a 3D model in both views. You can change this option at any time.

Tips:

• Adding decks is easiest in the plan view.

• Be sure grid-snap is enabled, or it will be difficult to build your deck using exact dimensions. See Snap Settings for more information.

• To build a multistory deck, add the decks as described above. For the upper stories, set the Elevation to the desired height. Supporting posts will be automatically added to the upper levels.

• You can add stairs to your deck. See Adding Deck Stairs for details.